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ROSH HASHONOH 5656 was published in Jewish Messenger (#126) asks for support for the seminary: "No personal ambition inspired the thought which gave origin to an institution with which my name is closely connected. To promote the instruction of youths who will devote themselves to learning attained and all the energy they posess to the service of the religion vigilantly watched over by the good & true, was the sole controlling object in my endeavors. "The Jewish Theological Seminary" will, I fervently pray hope prove that the honor of legitimate Judaism is safe in trus tworthy hands; that it will not be sacrificed to shifting expediency. When called hence, I shall have left behind what will permanently benefit the cause for which I was expected to labor, while on this side of the grave. Men & women who have remained uninfluenced by the preaching of their elders, may readily follow the lead of their coevals, coming to them well-equipped in a lknowledge sound and persuasive..... already acceptable fruits of my planting have sprung forth. 3 students... have been declared fitted to wear the ministerial robe... (soon there will be more)

Last edit 4 months ago by LIFrancophone

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{[circled; at upper left:] 125 [circled; at upper right:] 2}

{Delivered at the memorial service for President Garfield Sept 26th 1881. It was published in the Jewish Record}

Heavenly Father! Our minds are troubled, and our hearts unutterably grieved. We had prayed and ardently hoped for a cause of thanksgivings, but amidst universal gloom, lamentations resound through the land. At this hour of national anguish, we fly unto Thee for relief. Oh! teuch us to understand how the distressing bereavement forced upon us by a loathsome wretch is made to agree with Thy paternal design. A rag of Thy infinite wisdom willmay chase away the cloud that hangs over our spirits.

Not because Garfield was eminently virtuous do we sigh and mourn at his departure. Surely. his righteousness has walked before him and prepared the way to the glories in wh[ich]ereto Thou hast uplifted his soul. The loss we deplore is the deprivation of a Chief under whose lead the Republic of Thy godly Washington, would have been cleansed from dross, and have reached a higher standard of public morality.

Last edit 3 months ago by LIFrancophone
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No more will America profit by the counsel of Thy upright servant. The lips which a live coal from the altar of Purity had touched, are sealed for ever in death. Bent with sorrow we have this day accompanyied to its final home the body whose restoration would have been our joy. The tears of Thy afflicted children flow;bedew their countenances; their blessings are wreaths of unfading flowers crowning yonderthat sepulchre. May we, O heavenly Father! often turn our thoughts thereunto, and, remembering the foul sin of dishonesty which causedoccasioned the opening of that untimely grave, may we vow to carry out the principles of rectitude which the dear dead has left as a legacy. Grant that our brel solves may receive a complete realization through the unswerving adherence of Chester Allenan Arthur to the solemn oath he solemnly took in Thy divine presence. Then time will soothe the oppressive feelings which so distress us now find relief.

Last edit 2 months ago by LIFrancophone
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Heavenly Father! We commend to Thy grace her whose cheeks, furrowed with age, have more deeply sunk in by reason of the trials and decease of her great son, and with her take also in Thy merciful care the woman whose tenderness of wifely devotion illustrates a character sublimely pious. May the respectful love which millions bear them bring alleviation to their anguish, and Thy signal protection to the surviving offspring of our sainted President prove to them both a sweet and lasting consolation.

Oh! DeliverShield America from calamities, exalt her in righteousness, and Keep her as ensign to the world of national probity and of universal freedom until time shall be no more. Amen.

Last edit 2 months ago by LIFrancophone

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dispensed alms, but charity therewith, for real charity was the counsel accompanying the gift; the gentle admonition which strove to remove squalor, which recommended neatness, and awakened in the destitute a sense of self-respect and self-dependence. The law of kindness is on her tongue," has always appeared to me the highest encomium bestowed on the typical woman of the Scriptures, as portrayed in the last chapter of the incomparable book of Proverbs. And because Bluma Hart employed her tongue mercifully to the last week of her existence, when that organ refused its accustomed office, therefore do I deem my task at this hour pleasurable, though confessedly sad-aye, very sad; for in proportion as the character of persons who leave our midst is entitled to commendation, so is the loss which the community experiences at their departure deeply felt and not easily supplied. The indigent, whom this good Jewess cared for in the name of the venerable institution she represented, will lament her absence; the congregation, doomed to add another to the list of the many whose decease it has recently deplored, will sensibly feel the new void created. Still, to the family of the upright one, the memory of her righteous deeds will be a soothing balm at this moment of their poignant grief, and always, hereafter, will it remain a cause of their just boast, and joy, and glory on earth, and a rainbow of promise of a blessed reunion in heaven. O everlasting Father! Pour down thy celestial consolations, and let them abide with a bereaved household. May peace be enthroned in their midst; tranquility dwell in their hearts; and for the dear object who has departed hence, we beseech thee, O compassionate Lord! as her body will be hidden from sight, so may her shortcomings be covered up beneath the ample folds of thy paternal benignity. But let her virtues as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, as a dispenser of charity, stand eternally before thy presence, and win for her undying spirit the delights of Paradise. May the living, recalling the life of thy handmaid, Bluma Hart, reverently exclaim: "Gracefulness is deceitful, and beauty is vain; the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruits of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." AMEN.

Last edit 4 months ago by University of Pennsylvania Libraries

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What the pillar of cloud was to our fathers by day, and the pillar of fire by night, are the wise and the learned to us, O fellow Israelites! We walk at the light which their bright intellects emit. Our progenitors winding their steps through trackless deserts, cast a look around, and lo! a guide from heaven led them forth. We, the travellers of a road, rough and rugged, see a beacon illuming our horizon. At its radiance, we can always discover a safe issue. Oh! how lurid would be the mist created by its absence! But, Israel will never be unshrouded in darkness. I read it in the chronicles of truth. [In Hebrew]. He will not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of cloud fire by night from before the people. the future, will, like the past, be directed by God's own agency. To the end of time, the house of Jacob will produce men, whose spiritual teaching shall mould the mind of multitudes. Let us never fear that infidelity will dethrone pity. That the rule of wickedness will supplant that of godliness. A Gideon arose, and the idols were cast down. Samuel became the Judge, when the children of a high priest contaminated the alter. The same day which he saw beheld the Literally, the Hebrew verb stand in the future tense.

Last edit 5 months ago by LIFrancophone
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Jewel to the crown of the law.

But who would have believed that the hand which two months ago recorded the demise of the Sage at Prague, would be also palsied in death? .... Rest thy aching heart on the bosom of eternity, thou so long racked by deep and earnest thoughts! Thou didst thy work well, and thine alone is the merit, for there was none to help or counsel. It is even so, my beloved hearers! When Isaac Leeser went forth, armed with fiery zeal to fight the battles of the Lord, he stood alone. A host might have then been arrayed against Israel, but not one was found in our camp, able to cope with the enemy foe. A youth arose to the defencse of his religion and his people. Was the name of the Jew aspersed? His vigorous pen wrote the words, which put the offender to the blush. Were the truths of Sinai denied impugned?

He strove to confound the Unbeliever. On the pulpit, in the press, at social gatherings, he stood as the bright exponent of principles, which he never forsook, though he bore for their sake the jeers of the scoffers, and the contumely of the skeptics. Gifted with versatility of mind, endowed with the powers of an endurance, that few can equal,

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formed by nature with faculties [excl] extraordinarily retentive, he could accomplish , unaided more , than others with efficient supports. For, despite his clerical duties necessarily various and onerous in a large Congregation, the works he produced have been numerous multifarious and extensive. Shall I enumerate them?.... My friends! There is scarcely a religious book of note in the United States of America, that [th] does not [bear] bear on its title page the name of Isaac Leeser.

The prayers you offer to God, have, by his industry, been translated in the vernacular, and elegantly printed The Bible you read for instruction and spiritual comfort has, by his toil, been freed from biassed interpretations, and rendered more comprehensible . []The volumes in which your children learn the rudiments of Hebrew knowledge, those which inform them of the character and dogmas of their religion, and others which unfold before their eyes the wisdom of the ancients, are the fruits of his unwearied perseverance. For, education was the motto inscribed on the banner he first unfolded in the new world and unceasingly upheld[] in the new world.

He had discovered that that was the most efficacious means to awaken his brethren to a sense of their religious duty, and he employed it, resorted thereto, proving it[]as evinced by his personal and literary exertions.

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Has he been successful? Most assuredly so. Not to the extent of his desires, nor commensurately with his labors, nevertheless to a high degree. I myself, though comparatively a new comer, can bear testimony to the step in advance made by in our midst by our coreligionists. Will anyone deny, that our lamented brother gave the impulse? first impetus? No, others may have done nobly, but Isaac Leeser was the pioneer that cleared away the all obstructions. This feat, which ought to be incontestably admitted, was lost sight of by men who are or profess to be his superiors; in hence the bitter sarcasm which assailed him and aggravated his natural irascibility.

Conscious of having worked indefintigably. he was both pained and angered, when belittled by ungenerous minds.

That he had not explored the depth of Talmudical science, that his acquaintance with our casuistical writers and the Hebrew literature of the day was limited, [mig] ought to have been overlooked, by reason of the ardor with which he espoused the cause of education. For, that is the great debt, which America [owres] owes Isaac Leeser. Contrasted with a Luzzatto, he might have been a merely a tyro. Munk exceeded him by far, & he might would, for certain, have profitted by sitting at the feet of the great Rappaport.

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dared contravene the injunction. But the Ecclesiasti -cal Board, of which I have the honor to be a member, resolved that a public expression of sorrow at the [demise] of our colleague was highly due to his virtues and deeds, and I was asked to speak. agreed to that sentiment. Therefore I speak, [] fully assented. My friends! I utter what I profoundly feel, when I say that no man of Israel has yet found a grave in America this [wondrous,] adopted country this country of our adoption, who deserves to be enshrined in the memory of posterity, as Isaac Leeser deserves. For no man has so perfectly identified himself with the interests of his people. No man has so steadfastly and enth[a]usiastically dedicated a life time to the moral exaltation elevation of his fellow believers. No man has so powerfully defended, and so effectually benefitted the race to which he belongs. Since he began his useful [career], a tide of Jewish talents set, in this western [m] hemisphere, but I do not venture too much by declaring that none will ever perform his task with the unabated zeal he displayed. To it may principally be ascribed the his acute sufferings, and his death ere he had attained the ordinary term of life. For, to give weight by his presence to the gatherings of his brethren, designed for charity, to the assemblies of his colleagues for religious purposes

Last edit 4 months ago by LIFrancophone
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